STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Greta Friedman was the nurse in white kissed by a sailor in New York's Times Square

Greta Friedman, the woman in white being kissed by a sailor in the iconic photo symbolising end of World War Two, died on Thursday.

Friedman had been suffering from a series of ailments, including pneumonia, her son told NBC. The 92-year-old had been living in an assisted facility for the past two years.

She will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetry in Virginia alongside her late husband, Mischa Elliot Friedman, CBS news reported.

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt had clicked the picture in New York's Times Square on August 14, 1945 while revelers were celebrating America's victory over Japan. Eisenstaedt's photo, "V-J Day in Times Square," ran the following week in Life magazine.

"I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this vice grip," Friedman had told CBS News in 2012.

The sailor in a dark uniform, George Mendonsa, was photographed kissing Friedman, then a dental assistant, with his arms around her and her body bent backwards.

"If she (Friedman) had been dressed in a dark dress, I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same," Eisenstaedt said.

In his book, "Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt", the photographer recalled that he saw a sailor kissing women randomly. He snapped four shots in 10 seconds as the two kissed amid celebrations.

Friedman said of the photo, "It was a wonderful coincidence, a man in a sailor's uniform and a woman in a white dress ... and a great photographer at the right time."